Protected blade



Nov. 15, 1938.- M. H. PIERCE PROTECTED BLADE Filed Oct. 1, 1956 2 Sheefs-Sfieet 1 INVENTOR v Z Xficbme. BY ATTORNEY Nv.15,193's. MHHERCE 2,136,823

PROTECTED BLADE Filed Oct. 1, 1936 2 sneaks-sheet 2 INVENTOR J Y iywowfiaul ATTORNEY PatentedNov. 15, 1938 PATENT'OFFICE PROTECTED BLADE Melbourne H. Pierce, .Watertown, Mass, assignor to Gillette Safety Razor Company, Boston, Mass, a. corporation of Delaware Application October 1, 1936, Serial No. 103,537

3 Claims.

This invention relates to the packaging of fineedged blade, such for example as safety razor blades. In oneaspect it consists in a blade protected completely by a novel wrapper of sheet 5 material. In another aspect it consists in a method of protecting blades by assembling them in a novel manner within a wrapper having tongues or pleats struck out of its body portion in such a manner as to prevent shifting of the 1b blade within the wrapper.

In handling safety razor blades under commercial conditions of transportation and distribution and in the more or less casual treatment a of such blades by the user, the extremely fine, is keen edge of the blade is likely to become dulled by being brought into contact with its wrapping either at a fold vertex or by being drawn across or cutting the wrapper in being removed therefrom. On this account the best and most skillful 2U efforts of the manufacturer in sharpening blades are often brought to naught, because of the damage done to the fragile and delicate structure of the blade edge after it has been brought to the keenest possible shaving condition and before the having operation is actually undertaken.

Both the wrapper and the method of my invention may be employed with particular advantage in connection with blades provided with 30. corner notches defining shoulders and elongated unsharpened end portion in the blade. In wrappingsuch blades the tongues or pleats may be folded over'the shoulders of the blade at their fold line and'arranged to engage the elongated 3:; end portions of the blade at their side edges. Thus thebladeis interlocked with the wrapper in both directions and held against'lateral or longitudinal displacement. Subsequently by folding the side flaps of the wrapper outside the sharp lit edge or edges of the blade the. latter is held positively and" at all times out of contact with the fold vertex lines of the wrapper. An important advantage of such an arrangement and combination is that it obviates the use of spots of Vasel fi line which have been relied upon heretofore to attach the blade to its wrapper and so prevent displacement therein. While such means are effective in. general, Vaseline is sometimes variably effected by hot weather conditions and in 50 any case automatic machinery is complicated and difficult to keep clean when supplemented by a system for handling melted Vaseline.

The method of my invention is characterized by the steps of slitting the body of the wrapper in separate spaced lines across the fold line of .flaps H and [2.

the end tabs, partially folding the end tabs and scoring or creasing the slitted portions thereof to form tongues or pleats bent out of the body of the wrapper upon fold lines which are located within, or nearer to the center of the blade than 5 the' fold lines of the end tabs. Preferably these auxiliary foldlines may coincide with the end edges of the notches in the blade corners and their inner edges may be spaced so as to receive between them the unsharpen'ed end portions of the blade and engage the longitudinal edges thereof. The folding operation may be continued by closing the end tabs down upon the upper face of the blade and in this operation the pleats are folded inwardly and become interposed between the end tabs. and the upper surface of the enclosed blade. Subsequently, the operation may be completed by folding in the side flaps of the wrapper as already intimated.

These andother features of the invention will 0 be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings, in

which:---

Fig. 1 is a plan View of the wrapper;

Fig. 2 is a View in perspective of a partially folded wrapper with a blade positioned therein;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the wrapper with its end tabs closed upon the blade;

a Fig. 4 is a plan view of the wrapper completely closed upon the blade, the latter being shown in dotted lines;

Fig, 5 is a view in perspective showing the cooperating dies for forming the wrapper and a paper strip which has been subjected to the action of the dies;

Fig. 6 is a View in side elevation, partly in secti'on, of the dies with the paper strip between them; and to Fig. 7 is a view in elevation of the upper die.

The wrapper blank; which may be made of thin sheet material; such as oiled or Waxed paper, is shown in Fig. 1 as comprising a rectangular body portion .Ill scored to define side flaps H and i2 and end tabs 13. Each end tab tapers outwardly to 'a.straight end edge and is provided with a scored fold line l4 located a short distance without or beyond the ends of the side The blank is provided with four slits l5, one in each corner and so located as to intersect the scored fold line 14 of one of the end tabs. 'Furthermore, each blank is transversely scored at both ends of the slits I5 thus defining a pleat at each corner of the blank which is these the lower die has similar end portions 2I" connected by a bridge portion 22. The end portions 2i present divergent edges which co-p-' erate with the similar edgesof the upper die 28 in dieing out the convergent end edges of the" flaps II and I2 of two adjacent wrappers in the strip. The bridge portion 22 has side walls which converge to a line 23 and these edges co-operate with similar edges in the member (H of the upper die to'cut out. the joined pair of end tabs in two adjacent blanks. The bridge portion 22 of the lower 'dieis provided with two pair of triangular ribs 24, the ribsof each pair being aligned and spaced by arecess of concave contour. The inner. vertical faces of they ribs 24 present shearing edges which co-operate with similar shearing edges formed by the portion 30 of the upper die. The upper die also has a wing portion 29 provided with reentrant angle faces which fit the triangular ribs 24 of the lower die member.

It will be seen that as the paper strip 20 isadvanccd intermittently between the dies above described, they completely form the ends of two adjacentwrappers together with their end ,tabs.

Moreover, the slits I are formed at the same time and the pleats I6 are defined by being partially folded as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The upper die is provided with twoside portions 3| which are normally spaced slightly above the center portion 28 so that the latter acts first upon the paper strip to slit andpartially fold pleats I6. The lower die is provided with the recesses 25 between the ribs 24 so that the strip stock may be freed and allowed to accommodate itself to the dies during this operation. After the center portion 28 of the upper die has been arrested in its downward movement the side portions 3I continue to move downward and effect the shearing operation already described.

Having now described one desirable mech: anism for forming wrapper blanks, we may return to Fig. 2 which shows a blade I8 located within the wrapper and partially enclosed thereby. The blade. I8 which has been selected. for purposes of illustration is of the Well-known Gillette type. It has oppositely disposed sharpened cutting edges and corner notches defining shoulders and elongated end portions of the blade. The body portion I0 of the wrapper is of such size and shape as to underlie the blade with the fold line I4 of the end tabs coinciding subst-antially with the end edges of the blade and the scored inner foldlines-of the pleats I6 coincidingsubstantially with the end edges of the blade shoulders. As will be apparent in Fig. 2 the end tabs I3 of the wrapper must be at least partially turned up in order to make the pleats face of the blade I8 the pleats I6 are folded down between the overlying portion of the end tabs I6 stand up in the wrapper and for this purpose the pleats are forced inwardly making about their center fold line an angle opposite to that made by end tabs from which they are partially formed; that is to say, the lower portion or tongue of each pleat is folded inwardly about the shoulder of the blade as a fold line and the upper portion ortongue of each pleat extends outwardly from its center fold line to its point of connection with the end tab I 3. As the end tabs are progressively folded inwardly toward the surand upper face of the blade and lie smoothly and without jin anyway interfering with the subsequentfolding of the side flaps II and I2. It will be noted that the end flaps I3 are folded upon the endedges of theend portions of the blade as a folding line or vertex and that the pleats I6 are similarly folded over the end edges of the shoulders of the blade. The blade is thus prevented from longitudinal movement in its wrapper. Butwhat is more important, the inner edges of the pleats I6 engage the longitudinal edges of the elongated end portions of the blade formed by the corner notches and positively prevent-lateral shifting of the blade in its wrapper. Consequently, when the side flaps II and I2 are subsequently folde'd upon fold lines located outside or beyond the sharpened edges of the blade there is from then on no possibility of lateral displacement of theblade which would bring its sharpened edges into contact with the longitudinal'fold lines of the wrapper.

While I have shown the slits I5 which define theinner edges of the pleats as being straight and parallel they need not be so but may be converg'ent, divergent or angular according to the requirements of blades to be protected.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

.A safety'razor blade having shoulders and unsharpened endportions projecting beyond the shoulders-in combination with a protecting cover having end tabs folded over the ends of the blade, and tongues bounded by slits separated by the width of the end portions of the blade and folded over the shoulders on lines within the fold lines of the tabs.

A safety razor blade having transverse shoulders located within its ends, and a cover sheet having a bottom portion and end tabs and being slitted in each corner by slits extending into'both said bottom portion and said tabs and terminated adjacent to the ,shoulders of the blade, the material set off by said slits being folded inwardly in a pleat over the shoulders and. upon the face of the blade.

U A safety razor blade having shouldered unsharpened end portions, and a protecting cover havingv a. body underlying the blade and end tabs defined by fold lines, the body portion and tabs being internally slitted across the respective fold lines and the material set off by the slots being doubled inwardly over the shoulders of the blade.

MELBOURNE H. PIERCE. 

